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IRRIGATION I R R I TATION
he average landscape maintenance contractor manages 150 irrigation systems for clients. Some teams manage over 1,000. This is especially common in 8-plus month growing season markets, like the South. In most cases, irrigation controllers are scattered on properties across town and crews monitor them by driving to each individual system. This time-consuming task quickly weighs on a busy team. The systems also suffer when controllers aren’t adjusted to factors like rain, temperature and time of year. Above all though, this design wastes a lot of water. In just one year, the water wasted at an average commercial property is the same amount that would provide clean drinking water to 200 families in a developing country. A Texasbased company wants to end this habit and create a new standard for irrigation. Save Water. Give Life. This is the purpose behind Weathermatic, a worldwide provider of automated water management solutions. The company manufactures irrigation control tools, like weather sensors, sprays and nozzles, and smart control systems that can be managed from any location. Weathermatic has installed more than 750,000 systems across 85 countries, in total saving 20 billion gallons of water. The company has been a key player in the irrigation industry since it launched 75 years ago. It developed tools like the first reverse flow valve, MPR spray nozzle, commercially available electric controller and soil moisture sensors for irrigation. “Our goal probably started more as a purist— we want to help fight the world water crisis. Our initial proposition was to say to a landscape owner, ‘The cost of water is skyrocketing across the U.S. as more infrastructure issues happen. We are a water management company with an answer,” says Weathermatic’s President Lex Mason.
weathermatic SMART IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMS WATER USAGE TECHNIQUES
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Pro Landscaper USA South March/April 2022
Smart irrigation control systems use wifi and cellular technology to allow one person in one location to manage numerous irrigation systems. Remote teams can now communicate with actual controller boxes from anywhere. These types of systems save water and an enormous amount of time. Now, landscaping teams can avoid the traditional technique of visiting multiple sites a day to adjust multiple systems on that site.
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